What's this Italian dessert?

[ilsorpasso]

I picked it up from an Italian grocery. It looks pretty interesting but I forgot to ask the guy what it's called. Does anyone know? Is this a regional dessert or pretty generic Italian? Thanks!

[tmso]

If it's not Greek or Turkish baklava, it's probably arabic baklawa.

[roxlet]

I think it's turkish -- the arabic variety I had in Egypt has a custard type filling.

[tmso]

I was being cute in my reply, since there aren't major differences between the three. As for custard-filled varitaions, both the nut flling and the custard filling exist in at least the Greek and Arabic worlds, and I assume in Turkey as well. I believe the nut filled variety is the more common in the Maghreb -- it certainly is the typical variant from Tunisia -- although I don't know about Egypt and the Levant. Anyhow, in an Italian context I would first suspect Greek, then Tunisian, influence.

[limster]

Persian baklava is often flavoured with cardamom, which distinguishes them from many other varieties, e.g. Greek, Lebanese, Turkish.

[tmso]

Wow, that sounds great. What nuts do they use in it? I'm a big fan of the almond/hazelnut combination from Tunisia. I wonder if its spread goes even farther east than Iran or if it "only" goes from Morocco through Egypt and the Levant, Turkey and Greece, to Iran.

[limster]

I've most often seen pistachio in these persian/iranian ones. I was wondering if the nut filling varied from place to place.

[TonyO]

Looks like Baklava, a Turkish desert that is quite good, when properly made.

[Lixer]

Looks like Greek Baklava to me! Lucky you :)